The Roaring Road

William H. Strauss and George Bunny have bene in partnership manufacturing engines for decades. Business has been bad, so they need to win the big race. However, they quarrel. Each enters a car in the race. Little do they know that Bunny's son, Kenneth MacDonald, and Strauss's daughter, Jane Thomas, has gone into partnership to enter a car of their own. Underhanded rivals know none of them can win with MacDonald behind the wheel, so they take measures to ensure he is not in the race. Will MacDonald drive the car, win the race, get the contract and the girl, and restore their fathers' amity? Well, he's got a full fifty minutes.

It's an out-and-out Poverty Row special, produced on $15,000, shot in a week, and distributed via states rights. There's not an original thought in the script, but it's done with cheap good humor, and director Paul Hurst and cinematographer Jack Cotner have shot the racing scenes to bring some real excitement to them: the medium shots are swerving trucking shots that make the sharp turns and weaving of the race cars look dangerous. This is, as the time I write this, Cotner's sole known credit of any sort. Hurst directed a few cheap movies in this period, but with the coming of sound retreated, to acting. He appeared in more than three hundred shorts and features. He died in 1953 at the age of 64.

Paul Hurst was a classic villain in silent movies, and a superb character actor in talkies, most notably in "Gone With the Wind" and "Angel and the Bad Man."

Here, he is the director. And does a fine job.

"Roaring Road" had been considered lost but thank goodness it has been found and restored and a score added.

The story is nothing new, not even in 1926, but it's well presented, with good performances from Kenneth MacDonald and the adorable Jane Thomas, who, cute as the proverbial button, carries a cane here. Was that a fashion accessory in 1926?

Several well-known and recognizable character actors round out the cast, and here's a funny: When I started this review, only Kenneth MacDonald was listed with his character's name. And that because I had added that info to the listing.

Now, though, just minutes later, IMDb has the cast listed with their characters!

If I hurry, this will likely still be the first review in about 95 years.

We owe a debt to the people who saved and restored "Roaring Road," and to Turner Classic Movies for presenting it Sunday night, 17 October 2021, at least in Mountain Standard Time (Arizona doesn't change the clocks; but it would have been Monday, 18 October 2021 in the East).

TCM will show it again. Some day. Be on the lookout. You'll want to see it.